Education: The Great Trial

Scene. In the fastnesses of Tennessee, the quiet
of dawn is split asunder by wailing screams from a steam
siren. It is the Dayton sawmill, waking up villagers and farmers for
miles around. From 5 until 6:30 the blasts continue. The hamlet and the
fantastic cross between a circus and a holy war that is in progress
there come slowly to life.

Along the main street of the village, where everyone in town sees
everyone else within five minutes, peddlers, hucksters, hot-sausage
men (they call their wares "hot monkeys" now), pamphleteers,
itinerant evangelists,...